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Alexandra Caravel
"Born in the early part of the 1900s, and into a family that had believed in its own superiority to the point of amorality, Alex was not raised to be a nice girl. She was, on the other hand, raised to be cultured and to know the rules of society; all the better to know where the dagger would slide through easiest. The last few decades, however, have been a different story, where she has chosen - or had chosen for her, perhaps a - a somewhat different path. She was raised to know exactly what she is, what her counterparts are, and what other creatures like her are out in the world - or, at least, as many as her family knew about. In that area, at least, Alex is somewhat difficult to surprise. She is agnostic and definitely not an atheist - perhaps not surprising, all told - but she follows no religion in particular. Her curses and epithets tend to blaspheme in the direction of Abrahamic religions, and she is not particularly choosy as to which one when deploying foul language." Alexandra Caravel is the leader of Unit 7. Having recently transferred from the FBI, she is still getting used to her new position and the amount of freedom granted to her at the FCPI. She is the most experienced in the group when it comes to investigations, and uses this expertise to gather and sort through information on cases. She was created by writer Naril. Appearance Alex is tall for a woman, though not quite six six feet in stockings, and it's difficult to tell exactly how old she is - though most would guess at her early thirties. She has clear, dusky skin, as though she might come from India or Arabia, with the playful, slightly exotic features to match. Her eyes are wide, the color of chili-spiced hot chocolate, and her dark, slightly wavy hair is kept in a tidy ponytail to between her shoulder blades. She has a swimmer's build; strong and lean, but not at all difficult to look at, and moves with a kind of almost predatory grace that some find unconsciously unnerving and others find captivating. Her hands are long-fingered and very strong, with perfectly manicured nails. Both her ears are pierced a handful of times, but in a professional capacity, she rarely has more than one earring each. usually wears something around her neck on a chain, whether it's a pendant, bauble, or something else that caught her eye. It's not uncommon to see her in a suit, usually blue or black, with a crisp white shirt opened to the second button and tailored, but not skintight, pants over sensible, slightly heeled shoes or boots. It's not uncommon for her to be carrying a handgun, expertly hidden under jacket in a shoulder holster, along with her FBI badge, cell phone, notebook, and a handful of other useful things in pockets. Personality Alex tends to be direct and reasonably honest, with a wicked sense of humor and and a sensual smile for those less-than-professional moments. She is capable, has an excellent memory, and is comfortable being in charge or deferring to another, although she prefers the former. She gets along with people, although there is a sense that she's difficult to get close to; that she'll tell every story and joke under the sun but might not talk about herself in any meaningful way. This isn't necessarily out of a conscious desire to avoid intimacy - or, at least, Alex doesn't think it is. She does feel like she could probably stand to see a therapist, though. She was raised to see other people as disposable tools, but doesn't actually suffer from the kind of brain chemistry that would have made that an instinctive reaction rather than a learned one, and has been becoming "deprogrammed," as it were, for a while now. Specialities and Abilities Like some raised in a household strong on sociopathy, Alex is very good at reading people, their emotions, and manipulating them to get her own way. This has made itself useful in questioning witnesses and suspects to various events, although she's been strictly forbidden to try and ply her coworkers that way. More to the point, her strongest ancestral gift is the ability to "see the past," in certain places, or when touching certain objects, with a startling degree of clarity. Less potent, but still useful, are her physical gifts: Alex is much, much tougher than an average human and, in general, is possessed of perfect coordination. She is stronger than she looks, though not as physically capable as a recent vampire after a good drink, and is not really much faster than any normal human with exceptional reflexes. Alex is an accomplished fencer, a good (if not spectacular) shot with her pistol, a reasonably good guitar player, and a spectacular pool shark. Biography and History Alexandra is the product of a pair of what are typically the monsters FCPI is paid to hunt down and kill, with more than a little demonic ancestry in her family tree. Her father claimed to be the son of a Rakshasa raj, but Alex also never really believed him; her mother claimed to descend from some of the creatures common in Christian stories. Alex was their third child, and third daughter, born in the British holdings of northern India in 1904. Her upbringing was…strange. Her parents told their children that they were, inherently, better than the "normal" humans around them, and treated them more or less as playthings and distractions. If they couldn't manipulate someone into getting what they wanted, they had no compunctions about killing them and taking it instead, although the extra effort of cleaning up after themselves was always seen as an unwelcome chore. To call them parasites is not accurate; they were more like strangler vines, taking and taking with no regard for anything but themselves. They passed this penchant onto their daughters, and why not? They were stronger, faster, and (they believed) smarter than anyone around them, why shouldn't they have anything they wanted? For decades, the family would come together and apart, spreading their quiet, selfish chaos through the world. However, at least for Alex, most of her globe-trotting life came to an end in the years following the second world war. She and one of her sisters had been in the middle of a complex blackmail scheme with the director of an international bank when their hubris caught up with them, in the form of an FBI-sanctioned raid. Her sister bolted as fast as she could, and suspiciously before the bulk of the armed men showed up, leaving Alex alone and with an enormous pile of incriminating evidence. After her arrest, it became clear that not only did a small piece of the FBI know about supernatural, paranormal, and other creatures, but that they had been following her for quite a while. A number of those "in the know" advocated for killing Alex until she stayed dead, a task that they believed would consume considerable time and ammunition. A few, however, opted for the chance of a one-way ultimatum. Over the last several decades, Alexandra has been with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent. Initially treated as an untrusted individual one step above a prisoner, both she and the Bureau have adjusted to having Alex around, what she can do, and what she is. She still does have a highly restricted, monitored life at the Bureau, and the kill order is still extant; a Sword of Damocles meant to keep her behavior in check. For a long time, Alex resented the arrangement, and who could blame her, really? But more recently, she's tried to take a more enlightened approach. The rules of her life have changed, and while she still isn't happy about who did the changing, she is trying to find what happiness she can. The Bureau likes to call it reformation or rehabilitation, but Alex prefers to think of it as simple practicality. The fewer agents she punches in the throat, the more freedoms she's allowed - and perhaps she doesn't really need to punch Federal agents in the throat for sport any more. There are far, far more interesting ways to spend one's time, anyway. Recently, the Bureau is finding itself with less necessity to have otherworldly assistance on their cases. Sure, Alex's ability to touch a broken window at a bank and "see" who broke through it was still useful, but perhaps less so in the age of security footage and cheap HD cameras. As a result, they are assigning Agent Caravel to the company as a kind of involuntary foreign-exchange program. She is without official oversight from the Bureau in this capacity, but she suspects that FCPI has been instructed to watch her every bit as closely as the Bureau did, even if they may not exactly know why. Relationships Category:Characters Category:Copyright